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I made the mistake a couple of days ago of looking to see how long I’d been blogging on GnomeAngel.com. (Before this little corner of the internet I had a LiveJournal account which I started in 2002.) I realised that I’ve been blogging here since 2008. That’s over 2 years.
While I’m really happy with my little space in a lot of way, in other ways I still see room for improvement. However, I feel like I need input from other people about how to make improvements and what would people like to see more of, or less of, or just some of.
This is where you can help a gnome out. I’m looking for constructive feedback about my little piece of the internet.
I’d like to know some of the following:
- Why do you come here?
- What do you like about GnomeAngel?
- What would you like to see me post more about?
- What do you not like about GnomeAngel?
- What would you like me to post less of?
- Why don’t you come here often?
- What can I do to make your reading experience more enjoyable?
- Do you have any words of wisdom that you’d like to share?
- Is there someone’s blog you love that you think I might learn from?
I really would appreciate any feedback you can provide. It’s a safe house, I’m not going to take out a hit on you if you tell me it sucks here, as long as you can tell me why it sucks.
I want to know. I want to learn and most of all I want to help you enjoy your internet experience. I value and appreciate the time that you spend here and I liked to maximize that time for both of us. So, please, talk to me.
24 Comments
Angie, I would say 2 things:
1. Mix it up a little. An editorial calendar is both a blessing and a curse.
2. I want more of YOU! Your life, your stuff, what you are doing… this is what brings me back to blogs
xx
In just a few words you’ve managed to give me SO much to think about. Thank you so much!
I’m always so scared to post too much about our lives on line, but maybe that’s what’s really missing here. Getting to know the someone behind the blog.
Thanks Jess, I really appreciate it. (Especially because I know it’s not been a great day! Thinking of you!)
You’re so welcome, lady. And thanks x
I have to agree whole heartedly with Jess – I want to see more of your craft adventures! I’m a true sucker for new crafts and DIY (as you know – hehe).
I think there might be a slight problem there… I seem to have replaced craft with cooking. Ack! Although, I do still have that blasted January project to finish! Oh, and now the February one – so you may just get some more crafty goodness.
Thanks for taking the time to comment Mel, really appreciate it!
Yep! In a non-stalkish kinda way, I too want more of YOU! I love the stuff you find and I love seeing all those pretty things, but YOU! I want you. You’re a great writer and I like reading about your adventures. I’m especially digging your new culinary adventures. How is Meatfree Monday going for you guys?
Keep it up, my pretty!
And here I thought you WERE going to be my next cyber stalker.
MFM has been awesome. This week, because I’ve been sick, I haven’t cooked much. (Also think I was suffering a little burn out from Australia Day’s marathon cooking event.) So Monday I had vegetarian Turkish take-out. Was an experience to order take out without the meat. But still yum.
Thanks for the advice, the words of encouragement and taking the time to think about my questions. Means a lot.
Stay tuned for nekkid pictures!
I knew your blog from wayyyy back in the days of LJ and I always came back because you were funny, witty, honest and generally an all around cool chick with day to day events, ponderings, ups, downs and all of lifes beautiful complexities that fell in between. I liked the way you wrote – it always felt like it was exactly the voice that was in your head. And I felt like I kind of knew you as much as one can via words on a screen (and it seemed we were alarmingly alike!)
I can see why you’ve been drawn to change the blog. I like all the design, the craft, the cooking – all of the changes have been good… but… uh-oh the but (!?) I miss the funny, witty, ordinary, extraordinary, sad, frustrated, day to day goings on of your wonderful household and world. The blog now feels a little forced, constructed, designed…and missing the soul that gave it life, … that creates the wonder, awe and curiosity that had me asking ‘what’s happened in the world of gnomeangel today?” and eager to read on…
So it is meant as feedback, not criticism. You have all sorts of very hip, exciting and interesting passtimes these days… but I hope you know you were always those things, long before twitter, design and professional blogging came along.
OMG! I can’t believe you’re still here. I think about you often and wonder how life has been treating you and what you’ve been getting up to. LJ is so tainted for me that I find it hard to go back there even though I have good good friends that I’ve left behind.
Thank you so much for your kind (and flattering) words. I guess you’re right, this isn’t the me that I blogged on LJ about. I used to enjoy the fact that on LJ I got to share who I was but it was with a “select” few if that makes sense. I have always been so scared to blog like that on here because I worry about the backlash or the internet stalkers who think they own you because of what they read. (Which is why I left LJ)
It seems even without LJ you can still speak to me like we’re old friends. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment, for still wondering about me and for being a voice of reason. I do hope you’ve been keeping your thongs dry!
*hugs*
What a gorgeous and considered response! I agree that you’re hip and interesting!
xxx
Hi,
i have been following your blog for a while now. I have no idea how i came on it, but i started following it instantly. I never left a comment, don’t know why to be honest.
What I really like the recipes that you post here, i’m also a bigger girl and try to watch what i eat more and more. But mostly i just love all the pretty internet finds and the inspiration posts.
Hopefully you will continue for many many year so that the world can enjoy it to the max.
Greeting from the Netherlands
Hi Amarins,
Thank you so much for reading my little piece of the internet, and for sharing your thoughts with me. They both mean a lot. Thank you!
I will definitely continue to share the recipes (just made chicken noodle soup for the first time tonight!) and my internet finds. I guess now I will just share more of the “me” stuff as well. (So hold on to your hat it could get bumpy!)
Thanks again from this little Aussie
Well, at the risk of sounding a little same same…more of you is good. More of what you are doing would be lovely to read and mix things up a bit.
BUT, I love the regular segments too, I like the themed headings that tell me what the post is about it. When I see a segment I particularly enjoy I get excited and rush to read more. I particularly love hearing about your crushes, I always fall in love with them instantly…I secretly suspect that you choose them just for me.
If I had to pick something to see less of, it would be Music Mondays. I love music, but I don’t find it interesting to read about. I do like looking at pretty pictures, arts, crafts, and hearing the story behind them though, but that could be just how my four-year-old brain is wired, you know ‘oh look, something shiny/pretty/sparkly’.
Overall I think your blog is fantastic and you are doing an amazing job with it all. (I’m not sure where you find the time). I know that isn’t actually a very constructive comment but I’m not trying to flatter, it is the reason why I read it, love it, and admire how you do things.
Oh Jess, I don’t know why but my WP filter put your comments as spam so I’ve only just seen this now.
Thanks so much for the comment and the feedback. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I need to put a little more me into it all and I should get my balance back. I’ve felt like I’ve been forcing it all a bit lately, so I’m enjoying the getting back to just posting about what I’m thinking on the day and not scheduling weeks in advance.
You know I do just pick out my crushes just for you, right?
I’m really glad you dig what I do over here. I just manage to post more than most because I live on the internet and I don’t leave the house! Unlike you who are a creative bunny and spend all your time making wonderful things! PS. You’ve inspired me, I purchased my first lot of water colours today. I plan on making my postcards this weekend!
Oh, and for some reason I find Gnomeangel particularly slow to load compared to other blogs that seem to have a similar amount of pictures, graphics etc. Any ideas?
Is it still slow loading since I changed the layout? I found that same on my work computer, but since changing the layout it’s gotten faster. Or is that just for me?
Bella, I love your little space and the posts I love most are the ones where you inject your wicked and wonderful sense of humour. I also love that there are so many different things you blog about – I am just as diverse in my tastes and interests and love seeing your perspective on things. Much like the advice I gave Amanda a while back though, I think it’s a matter of sharing what makes you feel comfortable. But, I do come here to see your thoughts and would love to hear your opinions. It’s a tough line to draw in the sand and only you know where that line is. Big hugs. xxx
Thanks Cat. I guess I have shied away from being too much about my personality because I didn’t want to drive readers away. Turns out my readers appear to want to know more about me, so I guess that plan wasn’t working out for me.
Thank you so much for your kind words and for taking the time to read and comment. It means a lot. Thank you! *hugs*
Keep doin’ what you’re doin’. If YOU feel it is right for you, than that’s the path you should follow. At times I’ve found that I’ve gotten too wrapped up in what will draw readers, comments, etc. and, in the process, lost my own voice.
When you think about it, the blogs we visit are the ones that standout from the hoards of others because they offer a unique voice, attitude, perspective. This is exactly what your’s does.
Thank you so much for your perspective and taking the time to comment. I think you (and everyone else) have hit it on the head I’m trying to be too many things to too many people and not listening to me. Might have to sit down and have a quiet little rethink about a few things.
Thank you! *hugs*
I like learning about your infertility struggles. Since we’re in similar boats. I’d like to ask the same of people who read my blog but I don’t think anyone other than family does.
It’s funny, but those posts are probably the most personal I get in this space and I have only been thinking recently that I’m going to stop doing them. But maybe not… I do get a lot out of them; it’s therapeutic. It’s just the fact that everyone knows whats going on is a little hard to handle at times.. it’s all food for thought I guess.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and provide some feedback. Really appreciate it.
Why don’t you ask? You might be surprised to find out. I actually thought you were trying to keep the blog on the down low so I don’t tell people about it or anything like that. But I might just start pimping it out a little and see what happens.
I like your space and it’s evolution.
I haven’t been reading your blog for very long so can only comment fairly superficially, but I’m with the others who say more of you – I’ve thought long and hard about how to inject myself into my content without being too revealing. For eg, when I miscarried twice, I tended to only write about it afterwards, in a reflective way without actual medical detail. Writing after the event, when I’d had time to process it a bit (and writing it was part of processing it) gave me a bit of personal distance and meant I could write about it in a hopefully more universal way so that others, whether they’d experienced or not, could draw something from it.
I think that’s the key to personal blogging that doesn’t cross the line into being too revealing, breaching privacy or being so personal it excludes the reader.
So that’s how I’d encourage you to work on finding that balance.
I admit I find the inspirational posts a little hard to connect with – they’re not really original content so I find it hard to know how to connect or engage but that might just be a personal thing?
It seems to be a common comment; need more me. I have written about our fertility experiences, but I tend to think our lives are boring so I’ve stopped writing about us and written about generic things.
You’re not the only one that has made that comment, and it’s certainly given me something more to think about.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make a considered response. I really appreciate it. *hugs*